


Canis Week 2020

by Mikamod



Category: Canis: The Speaker (Manga)
Genre: AU, Fandom Week, Human Trafficking, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24719917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikamod/pseuds/Mikamod
Summary: All my stories for Canis Week 2020
Relationships: Harold Aldo Hughes/Iwaki Tadanobu/Samuel Murphy, Kashiba Ryou/Kutsuna Satoru
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Day 1: Two unexpected characters meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Today's story is a little short but I still hope you enjoy it.

He liked Tokyo, most of the time. It was a fine city. It helped that Nobu was here, that this time they were all here together. 

The plan was going smoothly even with Ryou confronting Hal, they were fairly lucky that the young man had wanted nothing more to do with the mafia world. It could have been a problem if the young man had wanted nearly anything else.

But, Sam thought as the shop Dante came into sight, he hadn't been joking about liking the hat the young man had been wearing on the runway. It was well designed and he liked the style of it.

Sure he didn't often wear hats, at least not in New York. Though they helped hide his most striking feature so it was helpful to have.

He walked in, taking in the quiet atmosphere as well, he noticed two people working the front of the building. Neither of them looked like the designer but that would be fine, he wasn't looking for a completely custom hat. 

He was luckily better with basically Japanese than Hal was. The blond could ask for things and get to places but holding a full conversation typically got those eyebrow furrows to really stand out on Hal’s face.

"Good afternoon." 

"Welcome to Dante what can we help you with?" The young woman asked politely, she seemed to keep up with trends he had noticed around Tokyo. He wasn’t too concerned with fashion, but noticing details never hurt.

"I was hoping to buy a hat similar to the one shown at New York Fashion Week. I liked the design."

She smiled at him and guided him to a section of hats. "All these have the same base design as that hat, it became very popular after Fashion Week."

"Thank you, Ma'am." He smiled politely and he noticed a shift in her face a little tilt of the head, the slight smile charmed onto her face. Maybe if he was about twenty-three years younger he'd have thought more about it. 

"If you find one of these you'd like to buy we can go ahead and ring you out up at the register." She smiled before walking away to help another customer out leaving him with a decent amount of options. 

He smiled a little to himself, seeing Ryou and the man he assumed was the owner come in and head to the back, the two in step with each other, Sam noticed the little touches that happened as they walked, looks like that kid found love. 

Best make his choice, he thinks, his own lovers were waiting for him at the apartment.


	2. Day 2:  Meeting Someone from Nobu’s days in the brothel. / City Light (both)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where we all learn im indecisive with prompts lol. I hope you enjoy

Hal had heard about this bar a few times, from a handful of people. Nobu normally drank at his apartment if it wasn't a social function so he didn't really have a goto bar. 

Hal didn't mind drinking at the hotel, or at his older lover's apartment but sometimes he wanted to drink out at a bar and this one seemed to be a popular choice.

He was honestly enjoying the beer the bartender had recommended, apparently, microbreweries were becoming just as big in Tokyo as it was in New York. 

He wasn't actively eavesdropping on the people around him not that he'd understand a whole lot of it. He could be understood and understand most basic things, directions and criminal activity related conversations but there was a lot he just wasn't good at.

So he nearly missed the word for prostitute, he didn't miss 'Tadanobu' though and tuned in a little more.

"I do wish that he … always a nice night …" 

Hal couldn't understand the full sentence or conversation but he could gather the rest. 

"Cigarettes …. strong … always brought … "

Hal tightened his grip on the bottle, looking through his peripheral to see the man speaking. Greying at the temples, with a long scar along his jaw. 

He'd seen him before, pretty low on the food chain if he remembered that meeting well enough. He was fighting the urge to bust the bottle over the man's head when he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

"I was wondering if you'd gotten lost." Nobu smiled at him, just politely enough to be work-related. "Someone called looking for you, and couldn't get ahold of your cell or the hotel and they were a bit aggravated."

A smart lie. He looked into those dark eyes and saw that something wasn't there, _Nobu_ wasn't there, this was all Iwaki. 

"A bit too drunk to figure this maze of a city out." He rumbled out as the older help him up and out of the bar, Nobu ignoring the stares he was getting, even as one blatantly centered on the dark-haired man's ass. Hal resisted the urge to turn around and give them a piece of his mind, he was admittedly the most impulsive one of the three and add the alcohol he had consumed wasn’t helping him keep his cool.

" _Don't_. Just keep walking out." Nobu's voice was even, unnaturally so, even as a low hiss in his ear. Nobu clearly wanted to be out of the building so Hal went. Played the part of a lost drunk foreigner on their way out of the bar, leaning into the shorter man both for the illusion and to try and offer some support to his lover. 

The cab ride was silent, Nobu did nothing but stare out the window, the lights of the city splashed against the man’s body, Hal said nothing, inching his hand closer to the others, checking that it wouldn’t make the situation worse before taking his hand.

On the elevator ride up Nobu leaned against him, his face far too much like the night they reunited, his eyes held little life, his movement a little off like a puppet imitation of a human’s movement. 

They got into the hotel room without a word between them, Hal closed the door, making the choice to leave the lights off, he could feel a headache starting to creep up on him and the light would only worsen it without helping the situation as a whole. 

Hal watched Nobu smoothly, unnaturally smoothly, walk to the window and open the curtains. Hal wondered where the older’s head was at when he was like this, in his past or as far away as he could get, a way of escape when he physically couldn’t.

Hal slipped behind him, arms slowly wrapping around Nobu's chest holding him close. "You back with me?"

They don't talk about it a lot. The way Nobu slips away even when he's standing in front of them, the first time he fully disassociated had scared the shit out of Hal. They had no choice but to wait it out, wait for Nobu to put himself back together, pull out of whatever memory he had been stuck in.

The shorter sighed tipping his head back to rest on the blond’s shoulder, giving Hal the breathtaking view of his love bathed in the neon of Tokyo. "Yeah.” 

Hal kissed his temple, the two just standing there overlooking the skyline, time standing still between them, despite all the hustle and glitter of the city below them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all tomorrow~


	3. Day 3: An outside perspective on either/both main pairings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was fun to look at the relationship from another angle or well three angles lol

1: A stranger

"Did you see the men who just walked in?" One of Lacey's coworkers asked her. 

"Which ones?” 

Marge turned her around to look at one of the booths in their little dinner. She could see what Marge meant, the three stood out in the crowd of small-town inhabitants, and transients: truckers and families on a road trip. 

It was just the three men, older it seemed than the people who normally come through the dinner. They were, subtly if she hadn’t been so used to seeing couples trying to be slick she’d have missed it, almost constantly in each other’s space, somehow touching whenever they could. She could see from this angle that their feet 

Like they weren’t really sure when the next time they would be near each other was. It was sad in a way, something about it broke her heart. She smiled as she took their orders, the dark-haired one simply ordered some water, the red-head a cup of coffee much to what seemed like the displeasure of his companions the only one to actually order food was the blond, just a blt sandwich, she noted the other two picked food from his plate which he paid no mind too.

That was all they ate thought the auburn-haired man more or less drank two pots of coffee by himself, she had gotten into a rhythm of his refills and he had a small smile and word of thanks every time. 

They weren't loud and tipped her well when they left, she would have probably forgotten about them if not for that overwhelming feeling of tragedy she felt watching them. Like there was something undeniably sad in the way they interacted with each other.

2\. Ryou

The young mobster watched as Iwaki and Hal interacted with each other, the way they seemed to orbit each other’s space. 

It was … _intimate_. Like a dance between the two men, a push here a pull there, all subtle and if he hadn’t been watching with such interest, which he wasn’t even sure _why_ he couldn’t stop watching them, he never would have seen it. No one else never seemed to see it or if they did no one talked about it at least. 

An interesting dance with a pause every now and then like a third person should be or perhaps was there. He didn’t fully realize just how close the two were until he had been forced, by politeness, to stand outside the door while gasps and moans seeped out of the locked door.

Iwaki’s reaction to the news of Hal’s death shocked him, for a moment, just a moment there was a distressed look on the man’s face, pain in coal-black eyes. Panic maybe, despite perhaps he couldn’t say it was a jumble of negative and over far too quickly for him to settle it out, get more than a glimpse behind that mask of indifference. 

It was quickly covered up again cold, and calculating once again.

3\. Kathy

She started at the grave, nothing grand, cold hard stone, nothing like the kind man who wasn’t truly buried there.

“Kathy Lawerance?”

Ah, this must be _Samuel_. 

Hal often spoke of him, vaguely most of the time, they grew up together, and just from the look in the eyes of the blond, the way his words were always kind even when frustrated, how he would drop plans to go to the man’s side.

He truly _loved_ Sam, in a way he couldn’t love her. 

The redhead seemed to return those feelings, he had the same look, soft yet melancholy, wistful and sorrowful like a man wishing for the soft nostalgic love of youth. 

It made her wonder why Harold had chosen _her_ to gain information; because they were both orphans maybe. Perhaps because she questioned Mary Ross, because in some ways she and Sam did look a little alike, alburn hair and green eyes: his forest green darker than her jade. 

Why did he choose to keep coming to her bed, when it seemed he never shared passion with the man he so clearly loved. She suspected it was more than his Christian upbringing, he was an atheist he had told Kathy, more than the time they all grew up in. What could it have been, holding one of the boldest men she had ever know back from someone he so _clearly_ loved. 

She wondered why they both looked anguished when she brought up Ross, almost angry about the woman’s very name.

Kathy allowed herself to be comforted, even if she felt she should return the favor. They both lost the man they loved. She took one last look at the headstone and knew the answers to her questions, the ones she was always found a way to avoid asking would never be answered.


	4. Day 4: Alternate Universe. / Touch (both)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A take on Merialeths' oracle au~ It was fun to play in for sure and I hope we get to see more of it!

Nobu knew touch, all kinds. It was part of his life, part being an _Oracle_. 

Except the lord’s men, leaving him gasping and babbling as pained noise muddled prophetic mutterings, unable to get out the mess of visions that echoed through him, Nobu at the time had no control over his abilities, unable to harness the visions.

A dying man clinging to the silk used to decorate his prize doll, warm blood soaking Nobu as he dropped the statuette into the lord’s skull one final time.

Two days later the king had shown up, saw that the remaining loyal men had thrown him in the dungeon, and Nobu could say he preferred the prisoner's rags to the dancer's silks he had been in before. He had a vision when the king took his hand Nobu heard himself speak out of his own body, words on a dagger for the kings back, a guard in gold and green. 

When said guard did, infant, try to kill the King, Nobu found himself moved to the King’s court. While he was once again in silk, it was fine robes and ceremony wear this time. Skin nearly completely covered but his head and hands, he needs those hands to read people's fates. 

He never had to allow anyone into his chamber or be laid out at a table among the court as brutes forced their will onto him, the bodies into him. 

It was all an actual, a play, he had a part that kept him safe so he played it. Until the past came into the throne room, with the same clear voice, but deeper and stronger, asked for a meeting with him.

Not by name, no one has spoken his name in ages, decades it felt like. He wanted to hear that voice say it, wondered if it sat the same in the other's mouth. 

He peeked out from the curtains that hid him from the court, and yes there they were, Hal in his leathers and armor, Sam in the fine clothes of an ambassador. They had grown up, apparently tossed off the shackles that often haunt orphans of these lands to gain a rich life. 

They came to seek answers for their dying king, to be allowed to bring the Oracle with them back to their country.

Their gemstone eyes spark with a new emotion when he emerges with the King’s words of a test. Blue and green brilliant in the hall’s light and he felt that old familiar ache in his chest, he wanted to be next to them.

A trial of faith, see if the ambassador was lying. 

Even if he was Nobu wasn’t sure he would pick it up. 

Fate is a hard thing to read after all. Often muddled with choices and desires, the paths one could take, the paths one was destined to take. He gently took both of their hands, one in each of his, focusing on them and only them. 

On keeping his own thoughts and words to himself, nothing foretelling his death, or being injured came to his mind. Nothing that his own _’king’_ would need to worry about. 

Nobu smiled at them, already knowing that the path was set out in front of them. 

His freedom awaited, finally a chance to take action, he fought his way out once, now he could try the more _diplamatic approach_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see ya'll tomorrow!


	5. Day 5: Date Night

_“Wait you’ve never had a date?” Hal looked across the kitchen at Nobu who was currently splitting his attention between trying to get a stack of paperwork for the actual legal part of his job and a folder of possible investor and money trails that Sam, who with any luck would be able to get a little more sleep this morning, had gotten a hold of last night_

_“I mean… I’ve taken people to dinner, Kaho insisted on meeting up for my birthday.” He shrugged, not even looking up from the work._

_“But you’ve never had a girlfriend, boyfriend?”_

_Nobu did look up at that but with a completely unamused look. “I didn’t really have the time even after, it was nothing but work and surprisingly if I really wanted companionship it was relatively easy to pick up someone at a bar or a mixer that I got dragged to in University.”_

_Hal tried to picture Nobu at such an event, he’d seen him briefly at fancy events before but something about a college-age Nobu surrounded by drunk college students just wasn’t something that easily came to mind._

_“It’s not surprising,” Hal smiled roguish and charming, the kind that had others on his arm in no time back in college. “You’re an incredibly handsome man.”_

_“And you’re a sap.” Nobu had a shy little smile on his face, nearly undetectable if one didn’t know what to look for, Hal took that as a win._

That was how Nobu ended up waiting for Hal and Sam to pick him up, both agreeing that since they were taking him on a date they had to pick him up. Which he felt was unnecessary but it did add something to the overall feeling. 

Hal had said to dress more casual than not and for the weather. So a soft sweater so dark blue it was nearly black, and a nice pair of jeans. He didn’t know why he was concerned with what he looked like, he didn’t need to impress the two. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t the desire to run or fight, wasn’t stealing his breath out of his chest, his heart didn’t feel like it might stop working.   
He wondered if this was a good idea, even as his phone went off.

Nobu made his way downstairs, and around the block just like he was taking a simple walk until he saw Sam leaning against an old Mustang, he had a ball cap to cover his hair and a pair of what looked like reading glasses, a button-down, and cardigan, slacks instead of jeans. 

He didn’t realize that the idea of a domestic Sam was such a turn on.

His face must have shown his thoughts since something caused Sam to smile and there was that feeling again. 

“You can have shotgun.” Sam joked as he opened the passenger door, even closing it for him when he was finally settled. Sam took a seat in the back and off they went, they hadn’t actually told Nobu where they were going but he was enjoying being in their company even if they didn’t speak much.

He never found silence between them awkward or heavy, it felt like there wasn’t a strong need for words they could just _exist_ together, occasionally trading words, a little like small talk but more. Simple stuff, Sam bitching about his shit luck with Taxis which lead to Hal talking about the time they both got spectacularly drunk and one of them, they couldn’t remember who exactly threw up in the cab.

That really shouldn’t have made him laugh as much as it did, it wasn’t really that funny but he could picture them so much younger, swaying together trying to just get home after a night on the town.   
He told them about law school, the funnier parts his roommate who just kept trying to get Nobu to let loose, which lead to the first time Nobu knowingly got high, which he did nothing for a few hours but watch late-night game shows, laugh and eat nearly every junk food he could, and the second time which ended up with the two putting on a mock trial for some truly terrible import beer and an English textbook.

He got to the end of the story, Hal long since giving up trying not to laugh while Sam was just holding it back and whoa, it hit him that this was incredible, the comfertable silence was great, perfect but so was this. Sharing the good things that had happened and that didn’t take away the bad, nothing would but maybe this was what they could have later, not the ridiculousness of youth ever-present no matter what you go through it seems, but good memories to share. 

It almost didn’t matter where they were going. 

“Here we are.” Hal finally stopped laughing, when they pulled up to a drive-through playing classic movies. 

Nobu had noticed that they were driving pretty far out of the city, fairly far upstate. He was sure no one would see them here which was freeing, allowing him to relax when the three sat on the blanket and pillows that Sam unloaded from the trunk, Nobu bracketed by the other two. He didn’t pay a lot of attention to the movie, it was just background noise to the company he was in, the feeling of body warmth chasing the fall chill away. 

It even got to Sam who fell asleep halfway through the movie, which judging by Hal not moving to wake the eldest up it might have been a choice to park in the back, that and Hal’s migraines, Nobu adjusted Sam so that his head was in Nobu’s lap and it left him struck how much the sleeping man trusted them not waking up during the shuffle, though with the way Sam fights sleep when he finally fell asleep with both of them he was out.

The movie ended, and Nobu couldn’t tell you what the movie was about. 

Sam barley was awake enough to get back in the car, poured into the backseat, and back to sleep before they even got out of the small town that housed the movie theater, and Nobu smiled looking in the review. Sleep really did take years off of Sam’s face and smoothed out those lines. 

They get to Sam’s apartment first and they get him up to his apartment, he smiles sleepily and they each get a chaste kiss that for some reason had Nobu flustered, something he still wasn’t used to.  
Hal dropped Nobu off where he picked him up, “Isn’t this where I invite you up to my room?” Nobu teased feeling playful, the two in each other’s space.  
“If this is a first date I’m pretty sure I just get an end of the night kiss.” Hal tilted Nobu’s face up and the two had a shy kiss, and for a moment it really felt like a first kiss, even though it was so far from it, and it for a moment made him acutely aware of what he had lost, what he missed out on. 

Their kiss ended and “The offer still stands.”

Hal laughs and “How about tomorrow night.”

“You, me, Sam in the apartment. Sounds like a perfect date.”

Hal smiled, and they shared one more kiss before Nobu started back to his room, for a first date he thinks it went well. He could arrange some kind of date around Tokyo, he was sure.


	6. Day 6 Fashion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its Satoru and Ryou one chapter lol. I do have to say this day gave me the worst problems, I've retooled it and retooled it and this is the best version of this chapter. So I hope you enjoy my hard-earned words lol

It was a little insane, how everything seemed to fit Ryou. 

At least to Satoru, it was strange, it seemed that anything the younger put on just _worked_ even when it shouldn’t, when in all reality the clothes should look terrible on anyone. 

Satoru was envious of it for sure, but it also has it’s upsides to it too. He got to enjoy Ryou in all of the many styles, from just lounging around in sweat pants, shirt optional, casual wear clothes to the store, and a little more put together to help out in the shop.

Even in a suit, all put together and sleek, handsome and rugged wrapped in fine clothes, knowing what he did about Ryou, the little things he could deduce watching him. Ryou should look out of place in the suit but no; he wore it like a second skin, better than some of the designers and models.

He thought that Ryou would make a good model, an amazing one if he was honest but something in him wanted to be the only one to dress Ryou, to wrap him in silk. Allow him to look his best. 

So he smiled when an agent slide up to his lover, he hoped it came across as encouraging more than he felt he wanted to give. He distinctly _didn’t_ eavesdrop on their conversation, so he _of courrse_ had no way to know that the agency scout had really liked Ryou and invited him to a more formal meeting. 

It was a good step for his lover, the younger should be more independent here in Tokyo have a life outside of _them_ , he was pretty sure couples needed that. 

He was proud that other people noticed Ryou’s potential, _he was_ and Saturo would help in any way he possibly could. It wasn’t a world he knew everything about but he had a few friends in the industry and designers and models worked closely, traveled in the same circles. He could get a few tips to get do a little better at interviews.

Ryou eventually got away from the group of party-goers and their hands, and cameras. 

“What to get out of here?” Satoru asked as the younger go back to the table.

“Are you sure? I know this is a pretty important thing for you to be here.” 

“I’m sure.”

They slipped out the party and caught a taxi, squeezing close together unnecessarily to be sure, but it was wonderful, left him more flushed than the liquor could have hoped to do. Satoru smiled to himself, and when they get home he pulled Ryou into the bedroom. 

Ryou looked surprised at first until Satoru pulled him into a sweet kiss, pushing the ink-black strands away from those beautiful blue eyes. 

He wanted to take those clothes off of the younger, slip the fabric away from warm skin, and it’s like unwrapping a present. 

The two slipped into the bed together, fell into each other, chasing pleasure in each other's embrace. 

Satoru smiled down at his lover, so handsome wrapped up in the sheets, his skin flushed and his hair mused, lips kiss swollen and nipped red. Satoru pushed the hair out of Ryou’s eyes allowing him to look into those breathtaking blue eyes once again. 

Saturo thinks this might be his favorite look on Ryou by far.


	7. Day 7: Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An idea for a happy ending for the series. I really do hope Zakk gives the boys some kind of happy ending

It was cold, Nobu noted both the actual room and the bed which had been abandoned he reached out to touch the sheets beside him. It was unusual for him to sleep longer than Sam these days. 

He dragged himself out of the bed, thankfully he was used to cold floors he had tried to push for heated floors but he really didn’t mind the cold wood on his feet. He didn’t hear his lovers in the cabin but that wasn’t odd, looking at the time Hal might be outside by now. 

In fact, looking out the window Hal was collecting firewood well he was cutting the wood into the more useful pieces and it was still far more _arousing_ than he thought it would be, his hair long enough for a low ponytail and Nobu didn’t regret his efforts to convince Hal to keep that beard. He looks like he was made to be a mountain man. Hal’s greying hair, mostly around his forehead was admittedly much less noticeable than Nobu’s own temple’s doing the same. 

Sam was _lucky_ to avoid that fate, his hair turning to a washed-out red-blond with age. 

“I could watch that for _hours_.” Speak of the devil.

“It does have its appeal.” Nobu smiled, leaning against Sam, he smiled at the feeling of Sam’s lips on his temple before Sam brushed the hair at his nape out of the way to lay a kiss to his neck. 

“I made breakfast.”

“ _You_ made _breakfast_?” Nobu teased, now that Sam had the time to focus on learning how to cook he was honestly good at it, to neither his own nor Hal’s surprise, Sam was unnaturally fast at picking things up. It took him two days of nothing but cooking in that little kitchen to get it down. 

“That jokes never gonna be funny,” Sam said with humor in his voice. 

“Sure it is” Nobu turned to claim Sam’s lips in a kiss when his stomach rumbling interrupted them.

“Food first.” Sam kept his arm looped around Nobu’s waist, easy affection flowed freely now that they were away from the world. He never thought that he would enjoy it this much.

The two sat down at the table when the opening of the door and the stomping of shoes drew their attention to the door, Hal shook off some of the snow dumping the wood pieces onto the pile by the fireplace, stripping out of his heavy coat and winter clothes. 

“Were you two going to eat without me? I thought you were gonna wait?” 

“Yes.” Both of them answered, false sweetness in their voice. 

“Sure, sure.” He made his own plate and they all dug into the meal, and it was funny to remember that just four years ago Sam could barely cook. 

This life was good for them, Nobu mused watching them eat, Sam had fewer nightmares and slept more regularly than he used to he looked healthier than Nobu had seen him, at least since they were children. 

Hal was more, _brighter_ , he laughed easier and just seemed so much freer than he did in New York free of the expectations of others, so far away from the place were their trauma all started. It was like a weight was lifted from all of their shoulders.

Nobu himself felt freer than he had in his life, he thought the loss of power that he held as a yakuza member would feel different like something was carved out all over again. 

It was like a wound finally healing, reduced to more of an ache, sensitive yes but no longer bleeding, no longer in danger of reopening at the slightest tug. 

He knew that this was only possible because of what they did, that they stayed and played the game, brought ruin to <i>those</i> people. It doesn’t stop him from thinking in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep, when he got caught up gazing at Sam’s peaceful face, moments of watching Hal trying to figure out how the hell the squirrels keep getting in the bird feeders with that odd smile on his face, the moments when Lucky their rescue dog lays on his feet to keep them warm if they had just vanished when they met on that snowy night in 2002, threw away what they had and hid away what would have happened?

There was no room for that idea, the past can’t be changed so there was no reason to think about the what-ifs.

They had a good life here, away from the world in their own paradise living instead of surviving, and Nobu doesn’t need to know those answers. They had this now, and that was all that mattered to him. 

They had a hard life, maybe they had earned this peace. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I cant wait to post tomorrow


End file.
